Sony is bleeding money - business strategy discussion

[Shifty Geezer]

Have you seen british telecoms's standard offering

No-one buying fibre is going to get a capped service! And uncapped are very common and not much more expensive. TalkTalk offers £20 pm TV, weekend calls and unlimited broadband, + £10 for unlimited fibre @ 38 Mbps. So 3x faster.

The largest files I download are in the 1-2 GB scale, very rarely, and they're down in 15-30 minutes. So just go do something else while they download (multitasking PCs?!).

 

[Prophecy2k]

I can't even get Fibre becuase I live in an apartment block.

Sucks big time.

 

[London Geezer]

I can't even get Fibre becuase I live in an apartment block.

Sucks big time.

Huh? You can get fiber in an apartment block, just as much as you can in a house. The problem is that they just haven't dug up the streets to update the infrastructure. Took ages and many delays to get it on my street, but I live 200 meters from the exchange anyway so I never really had a problem even on my old line.

 

[Prophecy2k]

Huh? You can get fiber in an apartment block, just as much as you can in a house. The problem is that they just haven't dug up the streets to update the infrastructure. Took ages and many delays to get it on my street, but I live 200 meters from the exchange anyway so I never really had a problem even on my old line.

Yeah that's kinda what I meant. In that the infrastructure isn't in place and so the option just isn't available to me at all.

 

[wco81]

Only 38 Mbps for fiber?

I get 58 Mbps/6 Mbps on DOCSIS 3 and can't wait for Google Fiber to get here.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

38Mbps is the standard for the lowest tier of fibre in the UK. I get 18Mbps (actual) on copper DSL and still waiting for fibre. I don't need the downside as much as better upstream so I can have my fileserver and media library accessible remotely. It's accessible now, at around 100 kilobytes a second

 

[Shifty Geezer]

100 Mbps is available in places, and with any luck BT will get their high speeds over copper working. But as mentioned, what exactly is the need at the moment? 30 mbps with really low latencies would be far better than gigabit with significant latencies (although the dream is low latency, super fast connections, to really let the machines take over quickly and cleanly).

 

[London Geezer]

I'm on BT Infinity, the top service which promised 72Mbps Down and I can't remember the upload speed, and it's been fine so far. Just tested it again and I get almost 70Mbps down and 16Mbps up. Pretty sure the upload speed was faster some time ago but can't complain.

http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/4057372902

Anyway, what was the topic here?

 

[Deleted member 11852]

I really shouldn't complain. My first dialup modem was 1200/75 baud.

Yeah..

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Upload is also more important for games than download. And file sharing. 30/30 would be better than 100/10.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Damn, here I thought we were supposed to have it bad in the US. For some reason I got a free upgrade on my cable internet from 50 Mbps that I was paying for to 130 Mbps.

Regards,
SB

 

[joker454]

Damn, here I thought we were supposed to have it bad in the US. For some reason I got a free upgrade on my cable internet from 50 Mbps that I was paying for to 130 Mbps.

Yeah I get dedicated 85/85 here in LA with Fios, and at my other property which is served by Time Warner Cable they recently upgraded it for free to 100mbps. Although cable speeds are never as fast as fibre in real world use as my 85mbps fiber downloads faster than the 100mbps copper cable that is shared by everyone on the block. Good 'ol deceptive marketing at work but whatever, at least the cable company upgraded me for free so that's something.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Damn, here I thought we were supposed to have it bad in the US. For some reason I got a free upgrade on my cable internet from 50 Mbps that I was paying for to 130 Mbps.

That isn't reflective of the country as a whole. When you look at the bigger picture the US is 11th in Akamai's 2014 table, behind Latvia, Ireland and the Czech Republic. The US was 31st in the 2013 table so it is improving.

But you sound like a millionaire denying poverty because you have money

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Yeah I get dedicated 85/85 here in LA with Fios, and at my other property which is served by Time Warner Cable they recently upgraded it for free to 100mbps. Although cable speeds are never as fast as fibre in real world use as my 85mbps fiber downloads faster than the 100mbps copper cable that is shared by everyone on the block. Good 'ol deceptive marketing at work but whatever, at least the cable company upgraded me for free so that's something.

At least for me it was real. I didn't notice it until I looked at how fast my download was going. And then checked and it was at 130 Mbps. I must say I was rather shocked as I didn't expect such a large free bump. The last free bump I had was back when I had 20 Mbps and it got bumped up to 24 Mbps.

Regards,
SB

 

[Sonic]

That isn't reflective of the country as a whole. When you look at the bigger picture the US is 11th in Akamai's 2014 table, behind Latvia, Ireland and the Czech Republic. The US was 31st in the 2013 table so it is improving.

But you sound like a millionaire denying poverty because you have money

Tee hee. The 1st state happens to be first in the country and third globally according to Akamai. Kind of makes sense for being such a small area and in the vicinity of NYC and DC. Having a lot of credit card companies with bases there probably demands high bandwidth connectivity so likely plays a large part in that.

Kentucky and Arkansas have it really bad. They could really use some Google Fiber love.

 

[Michellstar]

here we go again

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/12/sony-ceo-idUSL3N0UM09H20150112

Sony CEO eyes options as pressure mounts on weak TV, mobile


"Hirai and his deputies are now open to options including sales and joint ventures for its money-losing TV and mobile phone operations, company officials familiar with the leadership's thinking say."

"Sony, which has cut its earnings forecasts six times on Hirai's watch, forecasts a 230 billion yen ($1.9 billion) net loss for the business year to March, and will suspend dividend payments for the first time, after deep smartphone losses"

"Sony management recognises that "no business is forever", one source told Reuters. Although no deals are on the table, "every segment now needs to understand that Sony can exit businesses"

"He stressed the success of Sony's imaging sensors for cameras and its PlayStation 4, saying the company has sold 18.5 million of the game consoles, putting it ahead of Microsoft Corp's Xbox One and Nintendo Co's WiiU."

"Electronics in general, along with entertainment and finance, will continue to be an important business," he said. "But within that there are some operations that will need to be run with caution - and that might be TV or mobile, for example."

"The mobile and TV businesses both require a drastic overhaul," he said. "Without drastic reforms such as joint ventures or alliances, they will both be in the red three years from now.""

 

[Nesh]

Very saddening to remember where Sony was in the TV business and where they are now.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Very saddening to remember where Sony was in the TV business and where they are now.

The margins on high volume sales TVs are thin and consumers seem happy with Noddy-brand TVs. I guess the truth is the mass market does not care about great TVs they just want a TV that is good enough - at the lowest price possible.

So glad I got new Sony a few months back. I doubt they'll disappear fast but I also doubt they'll be investing much time and effort on future models.

There's still Samsung and LG aren't bad I gather.

 

[Dave Baumann]

Curious - with current panel technologies, what is setting Sony TV's apart from others?

For sure, Sony TV's in previous technologies were seen has a high bar, but personally I don't recognise that in their current range of TV's and see others as a high bar

 

[orangpelupa]

their triluminos IPS screens usually have great color accuracy and greyscale range. But who needs that other than professionals or videophile?

im still using bargain bin TFT BenQ monitor and its already good.

btw if Sony decided to get out of phone market like what they do on PC market... ugh.. it will be a great loss for smartphone differentiation.

Sony phones is the one that keeps doing something different with others.